


Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue

by okemmelie



Category: Hatchetfield Universe - Team StarKid
Genre: F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Love, Implied Sexual Content, Past Relationship(s), Sharing a Bed, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:34:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27784573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okemmelie/pseuds/okemmelie
Summary: The first person Ted fell in love with was Charlotte. The first person Ted really, truly formed a friendship with at CCRP Technical was Charlotte. The first person Ted pretended to be in love with for a weekend was Charlotte. The first person who broke his heart was Charlotte.
Relationships: Charlotte/Ted (The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 12





	Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Oneleggedgiraffe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oneleggedgiraffe/gifts).



> back in october, i pretended to ask stef for advice for the next charted fic i wanted to write. back in october, i wrote a fic based on what she said she liked. then the 23rd of november, stef turned 18 (happy birthday by the way). the 29th of october, archive of our own user okemmelie realized she never posted this despite having it saved in her google drive for more than a month
> 
> anyway, enjoy!!!!! i care u so much, dude. ka-chow

It’s not that Ted’s excited to start his first day in the technical department of CCRP. In fact, it was quite the opposite. He’d always dreamt of moving out of this shithole, of this bad excuse for a city. But turns out, it was more difficult than he’d thought. And all the other job applications he’d sent out got denied, so this was his only option.

And his first few months doesn’t make it better. All his co-workers are boring and the only one who isn’t, Melanie, moves away because she’s offered a better job in a bigger city. But at least he gets a promotion as she leaves; apparently he’s the most competent person left and that says more about the incompetence of his co-workers than it does him.

Working without anyone to talk to over lunch is awful, so he ends up pestering Bill Woodward. He’s a kind but totally boring guy and they never got along before, so Ted figures they never will. At least they can fight and Ted thinks that’s much better than boredom. He is an asshole now, after all.

A new guy joins the office. His name is Paul and he’s as exciting as a piece of white bread without butter, or anything else for that matter, on it. Before long, Paul hates him too and Ted doesn’t mind. Paul doesn’t have enough of a spine to push him away. And after a year, Ted starts to think maybe he doesn’t completely hate him. It’s something.

Then something happens. Or maybe not something.  _ Someone. _

He runs into that someone in the parking lot on her first day and Ted thinks he recognizes her at first. Then he gets closer and–

“Ted?”

Yep. That’s definitely her. “Charlotte?” He says and involuntarily, his lips curling into the shape of a smile. A real smile. “It’s been a while, huh?”

“It sure has,” she says, smiling back at him. It hits him immediately that she’s just as beautiful as back then. “I’m guessing you work here?” She gestures towards the building.

He nods. “Sure do. And you?”

“First day, actually.”

“Which department?” He asks. “I’ll happily send you on your way there.”

She laughs. “That’s very kind of you, Teddy. I’d love that.” They start making their way towards the building as she tells him something nice, something good, something heartwarming. “The technical department.”

“No way. That’s where I work too.”

They keep small talking on the way up and plan to have lunch together. He considers asking her if it’s a date until he notices the ring on her finger. She’s really married, huh? It’s as unfortunate as it is expected. She's beautiful, after all. And kind. There’s no way a girl – well, she’s a woman now – like her wouldn’t be taken.

Lunchtime is no longer a drag. Sure, the rest of his co-workers still refuse to spend time with him, but it doesn’t matter. Not anymore. Lunchtime is time spent with Charlotte and Ted can’t think of a better thing to do with his time.

At first they talk about the office, _the_ _now_. Then they talk about the in-between time. She tells him about how she met Sam, her husband, and catches him up on her college life.

And lastly, they get around to talking about the past. About summer camp, about being sixteen and carefree, jobless and filled with equal parts dread and joy. About that time they went kayaking and decided to race, and about that time when Ted accidentally got his kayak turned around while they were racing. It was a tragic day for his phone but Charlotte tells him that it’s really his fault for bringing it out on the water, just like she did back then.

Somehow they manage to talk about the past without talking about  _ them.  _ Without talking about what they had. On one hand, it’s probably for the better. Charlotte’s married now, after all. Nothing good can come out of talking about their first kiss, individually as well as shared between them. And even worse, her first time (his first time as well, but whatever).

It might be unspoken, but it’s still there. It lingers in the air and sometimes, Ted finds himself leaning a little too close, just like Charlotte finds herself “accidentally” brushing her hands against his one or two or a million times too many. It’s a dangerous territory and they both know it’s a line they should not cross.

They cross it.

They don’t mean to and it’s not their fault, not really. In fact, Ted blames Sam. Charlotte doesn’t, but Ted doesn’t care about that. It’s Sam’s fault and Sam’s fault only.

Charlotte makes plans to meet up with her high school friends. Ted remembers her telling him about how she was never the popular girl in their friend group, about how she never had a boyfriend, about how it always felt like the other girls looked down on her for that.

The day she gets the invitation, Ted and her are having lunch together again, again, again, again. They check the other girls’ Facebooks together and Charlotte points out to him that not a single one of them are in a relationship. She never had a boyfriend and now she’s the only one who does; and he’s not even a boyfriend. He’s a husband.

So she brags a little bit. Subtly, of course. She asks if she can bring her husband, talk about how wonderful he is and flaunts all the amazing things he’s done for her.

She doesn’t mention that he doesn’t do those things anymore. Of course she doesn’t. Why would she? It’s much better to pretend to have a happy marriage than it is to admit it’s crumbling in her hands. And to be fair, she doesn’t even tell herself; how can she even tell them if she chooses to be blind?

He cancels. The day before they’re supposed to leave, he cancels. He “accidentally forgot about those poker plans he made with his co-workers a few months ago” and she tells him it’s okay. It isn’t.

Charlotte’s upset. That’s one thing. Sam tells the okay-looking barista at Beanie’s that he’s excited to see her tomorrow. Ted doesn’t tell Charlotte. He should, but he doesn’t want to upset her. Not more than she already is.

Then she asks him something. “Can you come with me? Can you pretend to be Sam for just one weekend?”

And Ted knows he shouldn’t. Everyday he looks into the mirror and tells himself to be an asshole, a soulless monster who can’t love, who doesn’t deserve to  _ be  _ loved. And He knows how easily that could crumble if he spends an entire weekend pretending to be married to the girl he first fell in love with. The girl he hasn’t been able to get out of his head since he saw her in the parking lot. Charlotte.

He says yes.

They don’t kiss, not really. Sure, there’s a few pecks on the cheek and he even kisses her knuckles a time or two, but they don’t kiss. But they sure do pretend to be in love. And as Ted returns from the bathroom, before the girls have spotted him, he hears them tell Charlotte that “Sam” seems to be deeply in love with her. That they wish they can one day have a man like him.

_ A man like him.  _ It makes him smile. He’s never felt wanted, not since summer camp. And he knows,  _ logically he knows,  _ that he still isn’t. He wants to be. Charlotte makes him feel like he could be.

She catches his eyes behind her friends as he makes his way back to their table and she keeps looking at him as she smiles. “I’ve really gotten lucky, huh?”

He smiles back and his heart aches for this little act they’ve created, this little lie they’re telling, to be real. It isn’t. He knows that. But he can’t stop smiling anyway, because this is the closest he’s gotten to happiness since everything went wrong. He fears this is it, this is the happiest he’ll ever be, but he’s still happy in the moment. And doesn’t he deserve to cherish that as long as it lasts?

It isn’t until they return to their hotel room that Ted properly registers that there’s not two beds. Of course there isn’t; Charlotte booked this room for her and Sam, after all. There’s one. And they’re going to have to share it.

At first it’s awkward. They’re as far away from each other as they possibly can be and Ted’s sure one of them is going to fall out of the bed sooner or later. He’s not for that, so he decides to move a little closer to her. Not too close, of course. He might not be a good person, might not care about making someone cheat on their partner, but he cares about Charlotte.

And it’s not him who initiates it.

Charlotte moves closer. And closer. And closer. And closer and clo– she touches his cheek. She puts a hand on his cheek and gently caresses it, and Ted stops breathing. She moves closer again. Closer and closer and closer and then closes the distance between them by pressing her lips against his. For good measure, she moves closer yet again until her body is entirely pressed against his.

There is no world where Ted doesn’t return the kiss. He wraps an arm around her and buries his free hand in her hair, and soon enough their clothes are on the floor and they’re back to summer camp, only this time it’s a bed in a nice hotel and a sleeping back in a shitty tent.

She tells him it won’t happen again, but the next day she kisses him in front of her friends and the next night, they repeat their little dance. And when Sunday morning hits and they have to leave the hotel in fifteen minutes, they repeat it one more time.

And she tells him, once again, that it won’t happen. Ted isn’t sure he believes her; but Charlotte’s a great actor and as soon as they’re back, she pretends nothing ever happened between them.

Their lunches together continue and life goes on as normal.

He starts to think maybe that’s really it, the height of his happiness as well as the end of it. And every time he sees her, he looks at her with longing in his eyes as he desperately tries to figure out if he’s happy just sitting across from her at a table in a shitty cafe, sharing coffee and being friends after having had this experience with her, or if he despises her for dragging him down into this hole and leaving him there.


End file.
